Notorious drug lord dubbed

Ecuador on Sunday extradited to the United States the leader of a violent Ecuadorian gang who relied on hitmen, bribes and military weapons to do business. It marks the first time an Ecuadorian has been extradited to the U.S. directly from Ecuador.

José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is “Fito,” escaped from a prison in Ecuador last year and was recaptured late June. In April, a U.S. Attorney indicted him in New York City on charges he imported thousands of pounds of cocaine into the United States.

Macías “was removed from the La Roca Detention Center under the custody of the National Police and Armed Forces for the appropriate proceedings in the context of an extradition process,” Ecuador’s government agency responsible for overseeing prisons, SNAI, said in a message sent to journalists.

Details of the handover were not specified.

A photograph released by SNAI showed Macías wearing a T-shirt, shorts, a bulletproof vest and helmet. Several police officers were guarding him at an undisclosed location.

The Ecuadorian will appear Monday before Brooklyn’s federal court “where he will plead not guilty,” Macías’ lawyer Alexei Schacht told The Associated Press via email. After that, he will be detained in a prison yet to be determined, Schacht added.

The seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn charges Macías and an unidentified co-defendant with international cocaine distribution, conspiracy and weapons counts, including smuggling firearms from the United States.

The extradition decision came after the United States sent a document to Ecuador offering guarantees for the respect of the rights of the 45-year-old criminal leader.

Since 2020, Macías has led “Los Choneros,” a criminal organization that emerged in the 1990s. The gang employed people to buy firearms and ammunition in the United States and smuggle them into Ecuador, according to April’s indictment. Cocaine would flow into the United States with the help of Mexican cartels. Together, the groups controlled key cocaine trafficking routes through Ecuador, violently targeting law enforcement, politicians, lawyers and civilians who stood in the way.

Last year, the U.S. classified Los Choneros as one of the most violent gangs and affirmed its connection to powerful Mexican drug cartels who threaten Ecuador and the surrounding region.

Authorities in Ecuador have classified the gang as a terrorist organization. While Macias was on the run, the Ecuadorian government announced the reward for his capture would be increased to $1 million.

Macías escaped from a Guayaquil prison where he was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime, and murder. He was recaptured a year and a half later on the country’s central coast.

Macías has cultivated a cult status among fellow gang members and the public in his home country. While behind bars in 2023, he released a video addressed to “the Ecuadorian people” while flanked by armed men. He also threw parties in prison, where he had access to everything from liquor to roosters for cockfighting matches.

Macías is the first Ecuadorian to be extradited to the U.S. from Ecuador, prison authorities said. Two other Ecuadorian drug traffickers have previously been handed over to the United States but from Colombia, where they were arrested.

Earlier this year, a leader of one of Ecuador’s biggest crime syndicates, Los Lobos, was arrested at his home in the coastal city of Portoviejo. Carlos D, widely known by his alias “El Chino,” was the second-in-command of Los Lobos and “considered a high-value target,” the armed forces said in a statement.

The U.S. last year declared Los Lobos to be the largest drug trafficking organization in Ecuador.